Jewelry Repair - How to Fix an Earring Clasp

Learn how to fix an earring clasp at home with the help of JTV's Jewelry Repair Series. Our host, John Brooks, is a skilled jeweler at JTV, and he will guide you in today's lesson on fixing a huggie earring back that just won't catch anymore.

An earring clasp that won’t connect is a common issue that can happen with wear, especially with huggie-style earrings like in our video guide. These earrings are hinged at the bottom, designed to snugly embrace your ear. However, over time, the post can lose its memory due to continuous opening and closing.

Memory, as you may know, is a metal’s ability to return to its normal state when flexed or bent. Unfortunately, in this case, the post has lost its memory, and it's no longer catching. If you inspect closely, you'll notice a notch on the end of the post that should catch onto the female end under the lip. However, due to frequent opening and closing, it's not catching anymore.

There are only a few simple items you’ll need for this job:

• A needle-nosed plier
• A damaged huggie-style earring
• A little muscle and determination

The good news is that this is a simple fix, and you can do it at home with just a pair of needle-nose pliers. Alternatively, you might even be able to achieve this with your thumb. Here's what you need to do.

1. Take your needle-nose pliers and gently pry up ever so slightly on the post.
2. If you prefer, you can use your thumb to apply gentle pressure to tweak the post back into place.
3. With a little time and effort, you'll feel it snap right back into position.

Be sure to watch our video above as a visual reference. Our host, John Brooks, does a terrific job at demonstrating how to correct your huggie-style earrings. For more valuable tips on jewelry care and repair, make sure to stay connected with JTV's channel.

If you’re looking for a guide on fixing hoop earrings, check out our video and written guide below.

This video and guide are all about restoring hoop earring clasps. Over time, these clasps can lose their closure due to repeated opening and closing, and our host John Brooks demonstrates a quick and easy fix.

If you look at the hoop earring present in our video, you’ll see its clasp needs to be repaired. The issue the clasp has is after enduring the wear and tear of constant use, it has opened up and refuses to close. The culprit? It's lost its memory. In its normal state, the clasp is flat, but with continuous flexing (as in opening and closing), it should return to that flat state. Unfortunately, in this case, it has lost its memory, leading to an open clasp.

Fortunately, hoop earrings are a straightforward repair, and all you need is a pair of needle-nose pliers (same tool as the huggie earrings guide). 

Here's what you can do.

1. Take the needle-nose pliers and gently squeeze the clasp. Apply pressure gradually, little by little.
2. Keep squeezing until you feel a satisfying snap, indicating that the clasp has returned to its closed position.
3. That's it! A simple yet effective repair that you can do at home with minimal effort.

We hope you found our jewelry care guide helpful and informative. If you enjoyed this, be sure to explore our JTV Live YouTube channel and jewelry care playlist for more helpful tips. See our jewelry cleaning guide to learn how to clean your jewelry with safety and ease.